Documentaries Trace Three Black Lives That Mattered

By ROB PATTERSON

Hell yeah, Black Lives Matter. Big time. Right now probably more than at any moment since the Civil Rights movement years of the 1950s and ‘60s as racism insidiously resurges in our currently roiling and sometimes boiling nation. Hence revisiting the courageous and determined souls of the movement as well as other African-America lives is wise if not even propitious for the new struggle that’s, tragically, déjà vu all over again, in the mangled yet pungent words of Yogi Berra.

Brief aside: stressing how Black Lives Matter does not negate other ethnic lives mattering; it’s simply a strong rhetorical response to a genuine societal problem. Of course all lives matter, as the stupid attempt at a rejoinder to the notion of BLM goes. But at the welcome risk of ticking off right wingers by verging into CRT, African-Americans have continued to get a raw deal in this sometimes great nation (that remains too often not great enough). And racism still poisons our body politic.

I was born into and grew up through the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, fortunately into a family where prejudices simply did not exist. It was an inspiring time. I even thought the movement had achieved enough that genuine progress towards an inclusive and diverse society to follow seemed possible. But as recent events have shown, boy was I mistaken.

As resurgent racism taints our republic, it’s valuable for those of us who wish to purge its toxins from public life to continue delving into Black lives that matter. Three recent documentaries show how the accomplishments of significant modern African-Americans helped shift consciousness towards a better and fairer nation when it comes to race in different yet powerful ways.

When I was approaching one year old, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a White person on her way home from work – a proverbial shot of passive resistance across the bow of segregation that was heard around the world. What I didn’t yet know about her was what the title of a recent documentary makes plain: “The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks.”

A civil rights activist since her youth, she married a man also committed to the movement and devoted her life to the struggle. Known in the movement as “Mother Parks,” she not just deserved but earned that iconic honorific by far more than her famed act of resistance. The doc superbly informs on the fullness of a Black life that truly mattered, and should impel by example all the rest of us to resist and rebel against the evil of racism whenever and however we can.

On the flip side of the coin is is the doc, “Say Hey, Willie Mays!” I took special pleasure in this film as I’ve known its director, Nelson George, since my and his early days as music journalists, always enjoying the opportunity to chat with him when he was an editor at the music trade Billboard and I would stop into the office as a regular freelancer. His thesis underlying the film is that while Mays was not by any means a civil rights activist, he nonetheless elevated the stature of Blacks in America by being a brilliant baseball player. And a man who lived his life with modesty, dignity and class. Plus it’s a pleasure to recall his glories as a player during the times in which I came of age.

In a somewhat similar vein is “Reggie,” about the life of baseball’s Reggie Jackson. As a Yankees fan living in the Big Apple during his salad years as a Bronx Bomber, Jackson could be a bit frustrating at times. He was rightly known as a jumbo hot dog, and earned his nickname Mr. October by resting on his rep in the earlier months of the seasons. But when it came down to the clutch, he’d step up to the actual and metaphorical plate and show his winning stuff.

The gratifying aspect to this doc is how Reggie’s life well-lived and played resulted in the sort of personal actualization that should come with maturity in our senior years: the ability to look back on how we lived and see our faults and foibles as well as take pride in what we accomplished. And a look back at Jackson’s story from the October of his years shows what he did to move civil rights forward and upward.

I’m gratified to have had such Black icons’ lives enhance mine, which all three docs even further. And in such dire racial times as now, I hope more notable Black lives will matter enough that they shall help us overcome the current ugliness and ascend as a nation and society to a better, fairer and higher place.

Populist Picks

TV Documentary Series: “By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem” – A few issues back I wrote rather glowingly about “Godfather of Harlem,” and even being OK with how the series adapts and shifts the historical record for dramatic purposes. It’s gratifying to see if followed by this accompanying doc that covers the actual history of Harlem, Black America and civil rights during the period in which the series is set.

Documentary Film: “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream” – Explore the rich story of the family company that baked an essential Jewish food in a factory on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and their devotion to making the finest product possible, their longtime workers and a neighborhood undergoing rapid change and gentrification.

Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2023

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